MURRAY'S DURING WORLD WAR II

Victorville had always
been racially segregated, with the whites living in one
section of town, and the Hispanic and African-American
residents in another. The white community did not
advertise its intolerance with signs, and there were
no written rules, and folks generally got along well
together, as long as it was understood there were racial
lines that could not be crossed.

During the war, however,
problems arose when a black National Guard unit was sent
to Victorville to protect the bridges. Apparently the
servicemen, who were stationed at the Victorville Military
Airport, attempted to frequent some of the local businesses,
because many of the proprietors began putting up signs
that read "White Trade Only."

Early in the war
Victorville opened a USO for white soldiers only, but
the African-American National Guard unit had nowhere to go
for entertainment. Lela was a board member of the Chamber
of Commerce, and she complained bitterly of this treatment.
Despite her position on the board, she was unable to force
a change in policy.

The unit's commander from
the air base came into town and demanded that his men
be provided a place to frequent, and as a result the
Zaragosa Hall in the Mexican part of town was secured.
However, the Murrays were not satisfied with that solution,
and in an interview Lela tells of welcoming servicemen
to the ranch, regardless of race:

The USO was under
Catholic control, and there was nothing we could do.
So we threw our own doors open to all soldiers, regardless
of their color. And we promptly killed business at the USO.
Our place was a haven of pleasure. It was mixed in a
lot of other ways, too. Officers wanted to come as badly
as the regular GIs, but they had to mingle freely, just the
same. Oh, it was an enriching experience. We still get
letters from the boys saying how grateful they were.
We took care of their wives, their children. We turned no
one away from here.

At the end of the war
circumstances began to change. On the day of Franklin
D. Roosevelt's death, a white woman staying at another
dude ranch was walking in sorrow through the desert,
when she came upon Murray's, and there she saw little
white children sleeping side by side with little black
children. She saw this as symbolic, something the dead
president would have wished for, and she wrote a story
about it that appeared in a Los Angeles union newspaper.
The story was reprinted in Negro Digest, and pretty
soon the Murrays were getting inquiries about room rates
from all over the nation.

Lela said they knew
that many of the letters were from whites. "I could
tell," she recalled, "by their names. I wrote back,
telling them they had made a mistake, that the ranch
was owned and operated by Negroes. But then the people
wrote right back, saying that was fine with them, when
could they come, what were the rates and questions like
that." Lela stated that for awhile the town taxi driver
would try to warn off the white folks who requested to
go to Murray's Ranch, asking, "You know you're going to
a Negro ranch?" -- but he soon gave that up, because they
always knew.

Not only were the
Murrays' guests racially integrated, but their staff was too.
"The ranch has its own fair employment practice policy,"
one person noted, "and hires cooks, pantrymen, yardmen,
stable attendants and maids for their ability, not their color.
There are three white employees, four colored and one Japanese."

Nolie was a creative
entrepreneur, and he came up with his own advertising
campaign. He began advertising in labor movement publications,
and pretty soon Murray's hosted about 100 people each week
during the height of the season, from May to September.
The visitors from this period included Lena Horne,
Kate Smith, Hedda Hopper, and Freddie Bartholomew.

Ebony Magazine photo, Feb., 1947

GUESTS LEAVE CABIN FOR DINING HALL

Nolie and Lela's dream
had come true. They had a successful
enterprise, and those kids, black and white, in trouble or
with ailments, were still coming and they were still Lela's
favorites.